Heroes, Rogues, & Lovers: Testosterone and Behavior (41 page)

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When I read the story about Wiest, I was struck by his single-minded resolve, which reminded me of the focus and intensity I have come to associate with high levels of testosterone. His story prompted me to look for a connection between heroic altruism and testosterone. Years ago, when I began my research on testosterone, I was expecting to find selfishness and violence, and I did, but now I'm seeing generosity and altruism, too. Throughout this book I have presented a rather sorry view of men, especially men who are high in testosterone. They are often rough and callous, preoccupied with sex and dominance, and single-minded to the point of obsessiveness. Nevertheless, in the presence of strong social forces needed to civilize them and keep them out of trouble, men, in spite of their hormones, have the capacity to be thoughtful. They can stand out in goodness as well as badness; most work hard to support their families, and many, like Wiest, risk their lives to save the lives of others. David Gilmore, in studying different societies to write
Manhood in the Making
, was impressed with the selflessness of men and their willingness to give their lives for others. He said, "Real men give more than they take."
²My research leads me to agree with him and draw the same conclusion about women: real women also give more than they take.

I'm not the first researcher to begin a project expecting the worst of human nature, only to become pleasantly surprised. Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan began
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
³concerned that selfishness and violence might be dominant, but they ended up convinced that generosity and altruism held their own. In their book, they explored the evolutionary family tree and found evidence that both the altruistic and selfish sides of human nature have prehuman roots.

In earlier chapters I visited the evolutionary family tree and described how the raw power of testosterone, an ancient and primitive hormone, interferes with success in modern life. This chapter is about how testosterone can transcend its origins and find a helpful role in civilized society. Altruism covers a wide range of behavior, from taking flowers to a friend to walking across a pool of hot slag to rescue an injured partner. It can be gentle or heroic, and there is evidence that testosterone plays a part especially in heroic altruism. The positive qualities associated with testosteronestrength and energy, focused attention, preference for action over thought, and a generally dominant mannercharacterize heroic altruists.

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Local Heroes

There are many heroic altruists among firefighters, men and women who have chosen a career that is helpful to others and dangerous to themselves. When Noel Fannin, a student at Georgia State University, decided to study heroes, she printed a batch of the "I Spit for Science" badges that we give to volunteers who provide saliva samples for testosterone assays, and she headed for the fire station. First she collected saliva samples and other data from firefighters in DeKalb County, Georgia, which is near Atlanta, and then from firefighters in the city of Atlanta. She is studying how testosterone and personality relate to heroic altruism among firefighters.

Fannin collected data from two hundred DeKalb firefighters. Most of the firefighters were men, and it is the men we will discuss here. She studied their firefighting performance and the emergency medical technician (EMT) work that is so often required of firefighters today. They took personality tests, filled out questionnaires about themselves and their backgrounds, and donated saliva samples. Fannin asked six senior firemen who were familiar with the men to rate them as firefighters, and she asked two senior personnel who were familiar with their EMT work to also rate them in this area. All the ratings were on four-point scales, where one was a "check chaser," two was "average," three was a "real professional," and four was a bit excessive in energy and enthusiasm for the job. A four in firefighting was sometimes called a "hot dog," and a four in EMT work was sometimes called a "junior doc.'' Both types loved their work, but it was almost as if their motivation reflected too much of a good thing. Hot dogs sometimes took shortcuts when it came to safety, and they liked to borrow Crazy Horse's motto, "Today is a good day to die." Junior docs sometimes went beyond their job descriptions in administering treatment to injured people.

Two of the personality tests the firemen took turned out to be relevant to these ratings of firefighting and EMT work. One test measured personality traits described by psychologist David Bakan as "agency" and "communion."
⁴Agency is associated with focus, getting the job done, and an urge to master. Communion is associated with openness, cooperativeness, and a willingness to be close to others. Agency and communion are different but not mutually exclusive. A person can be

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high, average, or low on both, or high on one and low on the other. The other test measured five normal personality traits frequently studied by psychologists today: neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. As with agency and communion, a person can be high, average, or low on any combination of these five traits.

In examining the firefighting ratings, we found that firemen with the top ratings tended to be higher in agency than in communion. People high in agency, in addition to wanting to master situations, have tendencies to be self-protective, self-assertive, and self-expansive, tendencies that interfere with interpersonal closeness. In other words, the hotshot firefighters didn't stand out as being especially sensitive or sympathetic everyday companions. Fannin's data give support to the idea that wanting to get the job done is at least as important as wanting to help others in heroic altruism.

The top firemen also scored higher on extraversion and lower on openness
^*and agreeableness than did the other firemen. We found that testosterone predicted who would be hotshots, but only when considered in combination with agency. Hotshots were twice as likely as the other firemen to be above average in both testosterone and agency. The combination of agency and testosterone reminds me of a spelling rhyme I learned in school: "When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking." When agency and testosterone go walking, agency does the talking, and testosterone encourages it along.

The relationships among agency, testosterone, and firefighting are shown in Figure 8.1. The main part of the figure shows testosterone enabling the link between agency and energetic firefighting (in statistical terms, testosterone "moderates" the link). The lower parts of the figure show that when testosterone levels are low, agency is not related to firefighting performance, but when testosterone levels are high, agency is related to high ratings on the four-point firefighting scale. Just being motivated toward getting the job done appears not to be enough; testosterone is needed to translate the motivation into action.

Firemen who are high in agency and testosterone have less interest than others in emergency medical work, which is an important part of


^*Openness includes receptivity to new ideas and feelings.

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Figure 8.1
High levels of testosterone enable effects of agency on firefighting. An agentic
(action-oriented) personality leads to energetic firefighting, but only among
men who are also high in testosterone. Asterisk indicates a statistically
significant relationship.

what present-day firemen are expected to do. On the other hand, firemen who scored high on communion, even those with above-average testosterone levels, found equal satisfaction in firefighting and emergency medical work.

In examining the EMT ratings, we again found testosterone playing a role, but this time in combination with conscientiousness instead of agency. The findings are summarized in Figure 8.2. Testosterone enables a link between personality and energetic EMT work. When testosterone levels are low, conscientiousness appears to have no effect. When levels are high, there is a positive relation between conscientiousness and EMT work. As with firefighting, motivation is important, but it alone is not enough. The addition of testosterone helps translate motivation into action, which can be excessive action. Sometimes the junior docs are so eager to help injured people that they go ahead with procedures that could more safely be postponed until paramedics or physicians are on the scene. These findings are reminiscent of other findings in the area of altruism, where empathy alone is a poor predictor of whether or not a person will actually offer help.

Fire Station #4 is a special unit of the Atlanta Fire Department. Firemen there are trained to deal with especially difficult or complicated fires and other emergencies, including gas leaks. Fannin collected

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Figure 8.2
High levels of testosterone enable effects of conscientiousness on emergency
medical technician (EMT) work. A conscientious personality leads to energetic
EMT work, but only among men who are also high in testosterone. Asterisk
indicates a statistically significant relationship.

spit for science from the firefighters at Fire Station #4 on quiet days and on days when there were fires. She rode with them in the fire truck and the HazMat (hazardous materials) truck several times. On one trip, she collected saliva samples en route, and then, to her surprise, the firefighters leaned back and dozed the rest of the way. Fannin took saliva samples before and after the fire. The assays showed that testosterone levels rose on the way to the fire and fell afterward.

On April 12, 1999, Fire Station #4 got a call. There was a huge, dangerous fire at an old cotton mill being renovated for loft apartments in Atlanta's Cabbagetown neighborhood. A man was trapped on top of a crane above the blaze. He'd escaped the heat in the crane's cab by climbing out to the end of the counterbalance shortly before the cab burst into flames, but he was by no means safe. Although the wind was blowing heat and smoke away from him, wind often changes. A weakening hot brick wall was standing perilously close to the crane's tower. There was also a limit to how much heat the tower could take before it would collapse. A helicopter rescue was the crane operator's only hope.

That was a challenge to the firefighters at Station #4, and there were plenty of volunteers. Matt Moseley had suited up first, making him the volunteer to get the job. Hanging from a rope beneath the rescue helicopter, he braved heat and smoke while the pilot, maneuvering

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